What’s Inside and Outside Your Metaphorical Wheelhouse?

While attending the Thrillerfest conference in June, I couldn’t help but notice the frequent use of the word “wheelhouse” in conversations about reading and writing books. The word became the newest buzzword of the year. It is a term that has slowly made its way into many writers’ vocabulary, including my own. 

“Ohmygod! I need to preorder the new book by Ed Aymar, “No Home For Killers”—it is totally in my reading wheelhouse. Plus, the cover is freaking gorgeous!”

~ LORI TWINING

So, what do I mean by the word wheelhouse?

I had to research the origin of the word to know what it meant and whether I was using it correctly or not. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it has two meanings, and in my case, I’m using the second meaning when I refer to my wheelhouse:

1.         A part of a boat or ship serving as a shelter for the person at the wheel. 

“In many scenes filmed of the boat underway, McCook or Layton were in the wheelhouse, out of view or in a lower helm station while Clooney drove the boat.”

2.         One’s area of interest or expertise.

“As the campaign swings to the south, that should be right in his wheelhouse.”

~ Oxford Dictionary

While listening to people talk in the world of publishing, the word “wheelhouse” has become a popular metaphor to describe a person’s comfort zone or area of expertise. Therefore, whatever a person loves or excels at is described as being “inside their wheelhouse.” Whatever they have little interest in, knowledge of, or things that make them uncomfortable are said to be “outside their wheelhouse.”

As a reader, do you have an area of interest or expertise?

If you love reading contemporary romance like “Beach Read” by Emily Henry or “A Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood, these two books would be inside your reading wheelhouse. You might expand it to include romantic comedy with such books as “Accidentally Engaged” by Farah Heron or “The Holiday Swap” by Maggie Knox. Or, you could branch out into other romance sub-genres, including historical, young adult, LGBTQ+, erotic, or paranormal.

If you read dark crime or psychological thrillers (my personal favourite), your wheelhouse would include novels like “Things We Do in the Dark” by Jennifer Hillier or “The It Girl” by Ruth Ware. You might broaden your love for thrillers by including several sub-genres such as crime thrillers, legal thrillers, military thrillers, political thrillers, spy thrillers, and action thrillers. Luck for me, I love them all.

Your wheelhouse could have either a narrow focus or a large blanket encompassing many sub-genres. Do you have a reading wheelhouse, and if so, where do you draw the line? Would you have any interest in reading books that fall outside your wheelhouse? Are you a person who will read anything in any genre, or do you like to stick inside your wheelhouse?

This question came up with a few writing friends of mine. They mentioned they never read or write outside of their wheelhouse. Never. This surprised me because I am what one might call a jumper of genres. I love reading and writing in many different genres, and not focusing on just one.

My problem is that I’m not sure if I should be classified as:

1. Having a large wheelhouse full of different interests and ideas
2. Or whether I have a small wheelhouse that includes thrillers novels, and I jump outside the wheelhouse occasionally with my random book and movie selections of romance to give me a different kind of entertainment.

Example: One of my writer friends loves writing and reading in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. He has no interest in veering outside of those two genres. I was surprised. However, I understand his streamlined focus is on what he loves, and he is succeeding at writing and selling books in these two genres. 

As for me, I love thrillers of all kinds, so I suggested to the sci-fi and fantasy guy that he should try reading a military action novel that circled around murder and revenge, “The Terminal List” by Jack Carr. It is also a series on Netflix. He refused and said it wasn’t in his wheelhouse. He further explained that he didn’t want to waste his time if it didn’t fall into his two categories of sci-fi and fantasy in either his reading or writing. He is focused. He knows what is inside his wheelhouse and considers everything else to be outside without even a slight consideration of trying something new. He said, “Life is too short to spend time doing something I’m not interested in.”

Again, I was surprised by the response because I thought most people would at least try new things to see if they might like them, especially if I am recommending the book or the movie. This got me thinking about the other writers I know, and I wondered whether they would pass on a book or movie because it didn’t fall into their wheelhouse of what they already like to read or write.

I realize there is only so much time to read and write. Possibly, the people with the narrow focus are further ahead because they are becoming an expert in the topics inside their wheelhouse, and not wasting any time elsewhere.

However, I feel that I want to be entertained with other options. This made me consider what was really inside my wheelhouse. I examined what I loved to read and write. I discovered that my line drawn in the sand between different genres is quite blurry. I needed to determine what kind of elements sent my sweet spot singing. 

You will know that I love making lists if you have read my other blogs. So, I have compiled a personal list of the things I love discovering in books. These things below make me smile and help me enjoy life:

• Strong female characters
• A diverse and unique cast of memorable characters
• A story set in a contemporary world
• Dysfunctional family scenarios, where everyone is hiding secrets
• Relationship complications (between siblings, best friends, parents and their children)
• Dark humour and wit
• Thrilling books with great pacing and tons of suspense
• Threads of romance reminding me that love rules the world (found in mysteries and thrillers too)
• Revenge books makes my heart pump faster than anything else
• A crime happens, and justice prevails
• A mystery needs solving (I love puzzles and strategy games)
• Intricately-woven plots and subplots
• The underdog winning the game/race/life
• Surprise twists that I should have known if I was paying attention

This list includes just some of the things in my wheelhouse. You will notice that the list had nothing to do with a specific genre. The cool thing about making a list of interesting things you love reading about is that it should help you determine what kind of book you should be writing. If you love those things, why aren’t they part of the novel you are writing?

So, do you know what is inside and outside your wheelhouse? Are your reading and writing wheelhouse lists similar to each other or quite different? I’d love to hear about them. Drop your list in the comments, or send me a message so we can discuss it further.